Monday, June 30, 2014

The Crack

Not the craic. There was nothing fun about these two rides.

Last week started out pretty normally. Medium length ride on Monday, long ride on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, though, I thought I'd mix it up. Instead of just waking up in the morning and riding on my own like I would normally, I slept in, cleaned up some broken glass (stupid cats) and had lunch with Jennifer downtown.

Later that afternoon, I was going to meet with the group that rides from Bicycle Link for their Wednesday night group ride. On the Savannah Wheelmen website, this ride is advertised as a 20-30 mile ride depending on light. I figured that we'd ride for about 1:30, like the weeknight group rides back home, so I went out for two hours before meeting the group.

When I got to the shop, the ride instructions were announced, and it turns out that we were riding 40 miles. This meant that I was going to total up close to 75 miles by 8:00 that evening. Two consecutive days of 4+ hours shouldn't be a problem, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

The beginning of the ride seemed sort of disjointed. The instructions were to keep the pace no higher than 20 mph on the ride out, and that the group would split up on the way back into town. It was a really big group heading out of the shop, and the accordion was in full effect.

The ride back was fine though. I managed to sneak my way up into the front group, hanging onto the tail end of the 10-15 person group. This left me closing down gaps pretty rapidly as people started to come off the back. Eventually, I was the one who opened a gap, and my evening was done. I did lead out one of the shop employees in the next group for the "finish line" sprint. So I figured I had earned my beer back at the shop.

Thursday morning the Adams and I had a conference call to discuss the Cycle-Smart 'Cross Camp South p/b KindHuman. Everything is going well with camp organization and I couldn't be more excited. Of course after all this 'cross talk, I had to take my old, trusty Gin & Trombones out for a ride. I left the house for Skidaway Island and, with the help of the TuneIn app, was able to listen to the USA World Cup game while I rode. I didn't plan on riding hard or doing a specific workout really. Just ride to the trails, ride moderately quickly once there and then come home.

I noticed though that my legs weren't really cooperating to get any decent amount of wattage to the pedals. When I hit the trail, riding anything resembling quickly wasn't an option. It was still a good ride and I got to at least work on my handling, but the legs just weren't having it. As I was leaving the trails, I decided I would stop to get some more water and maybe a snack. I missed my turn for the gas station though, and there wasn't another stop until well after I left the island.

Right as I got to the base of the bridge (which is probably the gnarliest hill in Savannah) it all came apart. I'd lost interest in pedaling, and definitely wasn't making quick progress. I limped to the gas station, stocked up on water, Coke and Sour Patch Kids and then went home to unsuccessfully nap.

I'm blaming it on dehydration. I had left to ride in what felt like the hottest part of the day the day before, and then added another 40 miles of group riding. Finishing that off with a beer at the shop probably didn't help either. Friday's ride wasn't as bad, but just didn't feel very good either.

Luckily, after five weeks of training, I've got a rest week that starts today. My workout for today is to make mine and Jen's lunch, and then after she goes back to work, find a coffee shop approximately 30 minutes away, drink coffee, ride home. I'll upload to Strava when I get back

Of course, I have some super fresh Phlegmish Designs shirts I need to mail out today too. There's plenty more available for order!

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